He hits you because he loves you

What could possibly be wrong with an entire genre devoted to brooding, violent male love interests who don't really want to be bad, but are misunderstood by everyone but the teenage protagonist? All girls should read as much of this as possible.

This section was larger than the area devoted to Christian theology.

My favorite parts of Twilight are when she has to constantly apologize for tripping or otherwise being awkward - because that's not normal for teenagers of either gender, and any adolescent girls that display such behavior should immediately seek forgiveness and validation from the nearest male.

That, or when he almost kills her.

Religion says "slave", Jesus says "son"

I really like this, though I cannot go as far as he seems to near the end. I do think that people often get too bogged down in do's and don'ts, as if they can somehow establish their goodness, either absolute or relative, instead of striving to reflect the love of God.

Play Nice

Hours before I had to fire someone for the first time in my life, I received this text:

Don't forget to break it gently to the old lady dying of cancer that you're firing her a week before Christmas.

When I was later telling the same person how difficult it had been to deliver the news, she replied:

Aw. Did it ruin your day?
I bet it ruined hers.

The first one made me laugh out loud.  It was the perfect tension release before a meeting that I had been dreading for days. The second one made me snort, then just marvel at the boldness it took to deliver such a mean joke.

No, really - I fell down the stairs.

On this new Buick commercial, we all agree this woman is a domestic abuse victim, right?

Under Pressure

I attended the Wednesday night services at the Baptist church shortly after I arrived in town.  On the prayer list handout, I saw that "Headmaster Search" had been crossed out and replaced with, "Pray for our new Headmaster (Me)".

It was terribly humbling to realize that people I hadn't even met yet have been praying for me by name.  I really do not want to let the people of this community down.  Unlike my neighbors in Pennsylvania, the people of Mississippi and Louisiana are familiar to me.  I like the people here.  However, I am honestly scared that I won't be able to live up to their expectations and may let them down.  There are some fundamental limitations on the school and community, and I'm not sure I will be able to find the answers.




PS- I still love the job though. 

I love my new job

In the past 30 days or so, I have completed my thesis and master's oral presentation, moved from one apartment to another in PA, packed from that apartment to drive to Raleigh, flown from Raleigh to the Mississippi Delta via Atlanta for over eight hours of interviews, received an offer and accepted my first position as HoS (to begin six days later), flown back to Raleigh, driven to South Carolina, unloaded the car and packed for the move, hit a deer and spent three hours on the side of the interstate waiting to get that resolved, unpacked my now undrivable car to repack into a car borrowed from a family member, driven the last 500 of over 1200 total miles to get to the new job around midnight before my first day of work, then finished my first ever week as a Head of School in a small town culture that is familiar yet strangely foreign.

If the entire year goes like this first week (which was not without hiccups), I don't know if I will have to actually "work" all year.  I love it.

"Falling Skies" Resistance needs a Valley Forge

I really want to like Falling Skies, the new alien invasion drama on TNT.  I like science fiction, and I'm willing to make some accommodations necessary to drive the story - like an alien species that can construct and support an invasion fleet across galaxies and quickly conquer the major civilizations of Earth but somehow lacks the technology to locate groups of several hundred humans.  I get that you have to accept holes in their technology that are nonsensical in order to have a story.  I don't get how incredibly stupid the human resistance is.

Tom Brady is awesome

The man apparently does all kinds of charity work I didn't know about.

I don't know who the elderly gentleman is, but it sure was nice of Tom Brady to try to make him feel better.  I bet the old guy was jumping around after receiving a blessing from Tawm Brady.